Plan to expand Defence Forces training for Ukraine does not threaten neutrality, Tánaiste says

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has defended the Government’s decision to send members of the Defence Forces to help train Ukrainian troops and said it does not threaten Ireland’s neutrality “in any shape or form”.

Mr Martin said the Government has “no intentions or any immediate plans whatsoever” to join Nato.

On Tuesday, the Government agreed for up to 30 Defence Forces personnel to provide training to the Ukrainian armed forces as part of the newly established European Union Military Assistance Mission.

The training is expected to take place in EU countries, and a small number of staff will also be based in Brussels and in Strausberg, Germany, to support the activity.

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Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the decision to deploy troops was “in flagrant breach of our neutral status”.

The Dún Laoghaire TD said one year into the war in Ukraine, Ireland should be instead “using its voice on the international stage to call for peace, negotiations and to stop the terrifying escalation of this conflict that we are witnessing, which could bring the world to the brink of conflict”.

Mr Boyd Barrett added that Nato had a “bloody history” and was seeking to escalate the conflict “to the terrifying possibility that we could have a nuclear situation”.

In response, Mr Martin said the People Before Profit TD’s remarks were “deeply disturbing and unfair”.

“You’ve asserted there in a very distorted manner, the idea that Nato wants to escalate the war on Ukraine to a nuclear status,” the Tánaiste said.

“That is a disgraceful thing to say and it’s a wrong thing to say.”

The Fianna Fáil leader said two Nato members, Germany and France, had done “everything they could to persuade Putin not to launch that war”.

Mr Martin said Russia had been the only country that had hinted or implied “the use of nuclear weapons in the context of this war”.

The Tánaiste added that Ireland didn’t have “any blind spot” about nuclear weaponry despite claims from deputy Boyd Barrett.

Mr Martin said all the Government had decided was to “help to train some Ukrainians in respect of their capability in military combat, in terms of bomb disposal, and in terms of other areas of that kind”.

“It is not too great an ask for this country to make and it does not threaten our neutrality in any shape or form, which is defined by non military alliance,” he said.

“We are not members of Nato, we have no intentions or any immediate plans whatsoever to join Nato.”

The Tánaiste said Russia had used cluster munitions and noted the “extraordinary damage” they could cause after an attack.

“When children go out to play and get amputated because of picking up something that doesn’t look like a bomb but is a bomb, and you’re saying [deputy Boyd Barrett] we shouldn’t help to train people to prevent that terrible impact on civilians,” he said.